How to describe rare Transportation well?

It doesn’t matter if you choose motor-operated or animal transportation. Often it’s easy to describe them.—So, if you know them well, and how it feels when you use them.
But what if I wanna write about a rare transportation e.g. a zip line? How would you describe them? Do you have any tip?

Research. This is exactly the kind of situation where research becomes important, even when the story takes place in a completely made up world and nothing in it is in any ways constrained by what actually does and did exist on Earth. If you want to describe something that doesn't exist on Earth, then think of whatever is the most similar to it. Then try to learn the basics of how that works, or if it is going to be a major element of the story, try to learn some of the finer details as well. This will help you a lot with being able to describe it in a way that feels like it could be right, even to people who know a bit about it.

For example, things I researched are how bronze is being made with ancient tools, how sailing ships are steered, how much speed and stamina horses have, or how combat in formation works. Everything about how people actually fight with various weapons is something that always should be researched because what you see in movies is almost always completely wrong.

Are the new things new to your knowledge or to your characters?
That can affect how you need to describe it. I read a story where a Horse Collar was introduced to a society that hadn't seen or used one before and its use took a lot of explaining in the story.

No tips, other than to write it. Only then will you know the kinds of strengths and weaknesses that are specific to you. Only after that will you know what steps to take to improve. And only after *that* will you know what tips will help.

I write about all kinds of things that I not only have never experienced, but can never experience. Even if you do take a zip line ride, as pmmg suggests, that's just you and that's just one ride. And it still wouldn't guarantee that your description would resonate with your readers.

Yes, do research. You don't want to claim that you can go a thousand miles an hour on a zip line, or that you can go uphill with one (unless it's magic powered--ooh!), or that the way you travel on a zip line is to stand on top of the cable. But delivering means using your own words. Period.

You are asking how to build something without ever building something. Look at blueprints, study tools, you bet. But sooner or later you build something and see if it works. Then you build a better something.

The advice is not mine; it is universal. The way to learn how to write is to write, then get feedback, then write better.

Yes, do research. You don't want to claim that you can go a thousand miles an hour on a zip line, or that you can go uphill with one (unless it's magic powered--ooh!),

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Well there are cable cars that are in effect do go uphill with ziplines - ropeways, gondola lifts, and Aerial Tramways are all glorified ziplines that can go uphill. The first recorded one was built in 1644 by Fausto Veranzio and was horse driven, but it used technology that was easily 3000 years old, so it would not look out of place in most Fantasy settings.

It doesn’t matter if you choose motor-operated or animal transportation. Often it’s easy to describe them.—So, if you know them well, and how it feels when you use them.
But what if I wanna write about a rare transportation e.g. a zip line? How would you describe them? Do you have any tip?

Click to expand...

+ eleventy billion on doing it if you can. I literally went ziplining before writing about it. I spent the whole day out there, and wrote pages and pages of notes and journal entries. The great part about doing it yourself is that it enables you to write about it from an emotional angle instead of a purely theoretical one. There's a massive difference in describing something that you understand and describing something that you've experienced, and it's the difference between suspension of disbelief (getting your facts straight) and immersion (putting your reader in your world). You need to do both to really sell it. And doing these things, experiential research, leads to experiences that you will tell stories about over beers later. Those stories find their way into your larger stories, and they hone your craft as a storyteller.

You can always improvise and imagineer--imagination is our stock in trade--but there's nothing like the rush in your gut stepping off the platform to really get the creativity moving. Do it whenever you can.